Here is the outlined Intertesmental Jewish World view:Phase I: Creation – God spoke the world into being. They did not argue facts or methods, they had faith in God in doing this. They believed that God said it was “good.” Still today we look at this word “good” and study the implications.Phase II: The Fall – Humans rebelling against God, a spiritual treason we call sin. Sin results in broken relationship with God, one that once was perfect. We are guilty and liable to God for punishment.Phase III: Regeneration or Redemption – God has taken action to restore our relationship with Him. He wants to redeem us and reverse our present state. God is working his “redemptive history.” This has two parts: Part one: God or God’s agent will come into history and radically change how salvation works in order to redeem us. Part two: God will defeat Satan. This will directly and conclusively deal with the facts and consequences of sin.Phase IV: Consummation/End of the World – fellowship and harmony restored between God and man. The Fall is reversed. Then there are several different eschatological theories.

How did so many Jews miss the fact that Jesus is the answer (in the past two thousand years!?!) Jesus is the one addition that is essential to my world view.

Today:We believe that God exists (Heb. 11:6) and that He is the standard by which we measure everything else. God created everything that exists (Gen.1:1) and everything is held together by Him (Col. 1:17). We believe the Bible is God’s divinely inspired Word, revealed to mankind (2 Tim. 3:16). We believe that the fullness of God came to earth and lived in the human body of Jesus Christ of Nazareth 2,000 years ago (Col. 1:19). We believe that mankind chose to rebel against God in the Garden of Eden and because of that act of rebellion, sin and death entered the world (Rom. 5:12-14). We believe that believing in (John 3:15-19, 5:24), and obeying (Luke 8:21, John 3:20, John 14:21, 23-24), Jesus Christ is the only way to have eternal life or to be reunited with God (Acts 4:10-12).

Info: Google.com, the world renowned search engine, has a following. These people believe that Google, being omniscient and omnipresent, is the closest Mankind will come to knowing and facing a god. Google can solve all their problems through knowledge, and knowledge is power. They even have nine proofs of Google’s godliness.

From the religion’s website… “Pity the poor human Earth Pink who comes looking for a SIMPLE, SHORT EXPLANATION of The Church of the SubGenius™, one that he or she can UNDERSTAND QUICKLY. If the Church could provide THAT, it would be bigger than Islam or Christianity by now — and probably much, much worse.”“REPENT! QUIT YOUR JOB! SLACK OFF!”

Ellison Research recently released a study about American’s viewpoints on sin. It is pretty exhaustive and interesting study.

It showed the vast majority of Americans (87%) believe in the concept of sin. “Sin” was defined in the research as “something that is almost always considered wrong, particularly from a religious or moral perspective.”

Some personal highlights:“One of the biggest differences in whether people believe in the concept of sin is actually not even religious, but political. Among political conservatives, 94% believe there is such a thing as sin. This is also true among 89% of moderates. But only 77% of political liberals believe in the concept of sin.”

“Evangelical Christians are far more likely than almost any other group to include numerous behaviors under the definition of sin, and the difference between evangelicals and other Americans is often quite large.”

Under the “ Definitions of Sin, by Religious Perspective… ” table the “Not Born Again” category of people were less likely to defined any of the actions as “sin.”

CULTURE

This study is pretty impressive. It is very interesting and worth a lookin at. It tells us about hte culture we live in. There are some things/meta narratives (like Sin) that even non-religious peoples understand.

Gen Y and younger have live in an advanced society, too advanced – in technology and in lifestyle. Understanding the teenagers use of technology requires us to take a look at the world view of today’s teen, because if we take a snapshot of how today’s teenagers see society, we can better understand why and how they use technology.With that said, the Technology and Teenager series will be an ongoing series. Today is just an introduction and brief synopsis. I will continue to refer back to this and feature more material that builds on today’s post in the future:The World viewI would be fooling, only myself, if I thought I could write a quick paragraph or two to briefly cover everything throughly I wanted to here about Generation Y world view. I encourage you to do some more research after you read my blurb here, check out future resources I will provide as well as others to get a more complete picture. And read books like Youth Culture 101, Engaging The Soul of of Youth Culture (both by Walt Muller) and check out his Youth Culture website.For the youth of Gen Y, technology of the internet and personal computer advanced right to them. Adults older do not understand how all of the technology works, have not experienced them as much and to the same effect as the youth of today, and are not required to be apart of the technological pop culture as Gen Y is all allowed and welcomed to.For Gen Y, technology is almost like a second life or second personality, not only do most students have profiles on social networks, personal pages, blogs, and or other community with other Gen Ys (or anyone), but Gen Y is collaborating and connecting more online than any other generation has ever tried or had opportunity to.Gen Y teenagers might share/cry out their deepest hurts and pains on IM, on blog, on an online journal, or in a social network. They do not feel like they can share these ideas with older adults/parents in real life. This is their safe haven, or so they think.The youth culture of today does not feel like they can connect with their parents and talk to them as they really can/should and parents want them to (but they do not). Parents are struggling today to keep up with and connect to their children. It is an awkward state.Teenagers are getting all of these messages from so many people. They can relate to their friends online (other Gen Ys) who also are not connecting with their parents. In some ways,they are the blind leading the blind.

Technology UsageTechnology gives them the freedom to connect with some one. They can share their problems to one another, IM each other, complain about each of their own respective parents, they are learning this technology together. They are being marketed to. They make plans online. They have access to the world in seconds, it is a whole ‘nother world out here online.But like I said this is a very brief introduction. I have a lot of ways I want to run with this. But this is the beginning of more (hopefully) meaningful, meaty posts where my heart, ministry, and prayers are often.